Carolina Caroline

 I like stories about transgression, because a transgression almost always involves a coverup. Once you break a rule, you generally have to lie about *not* having broken the rule. And things begin to spiral.

In "Carolina Caroline," the title character discovers that she can rob people of twenty and fifty dollar bills. She just confuses them with excessive language. She has a person give her several dollars. Then, she will say, "Actually, I need a fifty dollar bill. Tell you what. I'll give you one dollar--and you give me a fifty--and we're even." The brain thinks this is a fair exchange. But the brain forgets that the ones in Caroline's hand are *store* bills. The clerk gives a fifty to Caroline--ON TOP of the ones that the clerk has handed over.

Of course this leads to bank robbing. Caroline's lover, Oliver, sits outside with a police scanner--and honks the horn as soon as Caroline needs to come out. One moment of carelessness means that a cop makes it inside a particular bank. Thus: murder is called for. One murder leads to another. Before you can blink, you're witnessing an act of suicide-by-cop.

I thought this was an elegant story. The two stars--Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner--have chemistry. I also enjoyed the twist on a standard coming-of-age narrative. Caroline wonders, who am I? The answers she finds are intoxicating. These answers are also perverse.

"Carolina Caroline" builds to a terrific last scene--surprising and inevitable. I held my breath. Good way to spend some time in a movie theater.